One of the most fertile grounds in America for solar panels looks to be big cities where by the end of 2014 a total of 1,300 megawatts have been installed – enough to power 250,000 million homes.

Although the 50 largest U.S. cities account for just a tenth of 1 percent of the country’s land area they are home to 6.5 percent of all solar photovoltaic capacity – led by the sunny cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix. The three cities account for 435 megawatts of solar PV.

Those are among the finding in a new study “Shining Cities,” by the Frontier Group and Environment America.

Most of the leading cities are sunny places – San Jose, Honolulu, and Denver, which is in eighth place with 58 megawatts.

Also in the mix, surprisingly, is Indianapolis at number four with 107 megawatts and New York City, ninth on the list with 41 megawatts. Similarly, lower on the list, sandwiched between sun-filled Austin and
Las Vegas is Newark, N.J.Read more…

When it comes to answering the questions of which American cities have the biggest number of energy efficient buildings? The answer looks to be “round up the usual suspects” — the biggest cities. But close behind were a number of smaller, over-achievers

The federal Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday released its list of cities with the most Energy Star certified buildings and the top of the list read like a list of top cities:

Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest city, was number one with 528 certified buildings. Washington, D.C was second with 462 buildings was second. Now, Washington is the 23rd largest metropolitan area, but it has a lot of government buildings that have been participating in the Energy Start program.

Then came Chicago, the third largest city, with 353 certified buildings, and New York City, the nation’s biggest city, with 325 certified buildings.Read more…

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Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.